TIM JEANES: Sitting by a boat ramp next to the city's maritime museum, one of Port Lincoln's pioneer tuna fishermen Hagen Stehr looks out to the waters of Spencer Gulf and sees good times ahead thanks to China.

HAGEN STEHR: China will be the biggest seafood consuming country in the world and there won't be enough seafood.

TIM JEANES: And so China could be to Australia's seafood industry what it is to the mining industry.

HAGEN STEHR: Oh absolutely. It will be. There is no ifs. There is no buts. It will actually happen.

TIM JEANES: Mr Stehr's optimism is backed by a recent Rabobank report finding China has the potential for a $US20 billion a year import market within this decade.

HAGEN STEHR: We are trying our damndest to open up the trade routes into China now with our seafood. That will be on tuna also.

Once the Chinese are going to start eating tuna like the Japanese, it will be a completely new phase. The best is yet to come.

TIM JEANES: Over at Western Abalone, freshly shucked abalone are being taken from tanks ready for export to Asia where many will end up in some of the region's finest restaurants.

Abalone fishers are also looking to China and have joined forces with lobster fishers to form what's known as the China Project, aimed at lobbying for better access.

As Western Abalone's managing director Jim George explains, illegal exports to China are an issue with legal traders facing extra financial imposts.

JIM GEORGE: Thirteen per cent import duty and 12 per cent VAT. So in effect they're paying 25 per cent in total.

Compare that to smuggled-in product that goes through Hong Kong - or even nowadays some of it goes via Vietnam - then it makes the legitimate importers, very difficult for them to compete.

TIM JEANES: While Australian exports to China are seen as a potential godsend to some, it's a two-way process, with China also an exporter to Australia.

The Fresh Fish Place in Port Lincoln is a fish processer supplying markets from local fish and chip shops to wholesalers in Sydney and Melbourne. It also has a newly-expanded retail outlet, with manager Craig McCathie saying some imports are a necessary part of the retail scene, even in a seafood rich place like Port Lincoln.

CRAIG MCCATHIE: A lot of the big global companies send it all to China to be processed because of the lower costs of labour.

TIM JEANES: Isn't it almost wrong? I mean we are in the seafood capital of Australia.

CRAIG MCCATHIE: I agree with you but the choice is there for the people that really can't afford to purchase the local product.

TIM JEANES: Is this a threat to the local industry or do they carry on regardless?

CRAIG MCCATHIE: Look, you open a can of worms there Tim. Everyone is feeling it - from car manufacturing, vegetable producers through to seafood producers. Everyone's feeling the pinch of imported product.

TIM JEANES: Also feeling the pinch - but in another way - are some of Port Lincoln's grassroots fishermen who fish in small boats for species like calamari and whiting.

Among them, Kiwi White is a third-generation fisherman with concerns for the future.

KIWI WHITE: I sound like a real whinger but the good old days are gone and quite a few of the professional fishermen who've done well over the years, this year's been one of the hardest.

KIWI WHITE: And there's just so much pressure. Every second place in Port Lincoln has a boat, a big four-wheel drive, they have a beautiful flash boat. And there's just boats everywhere. So I've actually got to a stage where close to 70 years of age, I'm still fit and active, but I've lost the drive to go fishing. Half the time I wake up in the morning and think what's, it's not really worth it.

From the Archives

Around 500 Indigenous people fought in the First World War, and as many as 5,000 in the second. But many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander diggers who made it home received little or no recognition for their contribution. On Anzac Day, 2007, the first parade to commemorate their efforts and bravery was held in Sydney. Listen to our report from that day by Lindy Kerin.